


We Can't (Yet in the Shadows We Do)

by fractalficlets (fractalgeometry)



Series: Hugtober 2020 [27]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), During Canon, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hugs, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:46:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27256657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fractalgeometry/pseuds/fractalficlets
Summary: There was one being who Crowley would quite like to hug, and was fairly certain would also like to hug him. However, thousands of years of cautious acquaintance shadowed by their relationships to a pair of very opposing factions made it difficult.Still... “Hey, Aziraphale,” he said, wandering over to where the angel was working at his desk. “Want a hug?”
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: Hugtober 2020 [27]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952887
Comments: 8
Kudos: 52





	We Can't (Yet in the Shadows We Do)

**Author's Note:**

> This is another one that got a bit longer than the rest, as I'm finding the during canon ones are wont to do. They're just so prone to _feelings,_ and that lengthens stories quite a bit. I like it a lot, though, and here you go.

Crowley wanted a hug. He hadn’t had one in quite a long time, and he was beginning to miss it. Problem was, there wasn’t anyone he wanted  _ to _ hug.

Correction. There was one being who he’d quite like to hug, and was fairly certain would also like to hug  _ him. _ This should have made the whole thing very easy. However, thousands of years of cautious acquaintance shadowed by their relationships to a pair of very opposing factions made it much more difficult.

Still, Crowley was in a bold mood, and it wasn’t as though they had  _ never _ done it before. Just...rarely. 

“Hey, Aziraphale,” he said, wandering over to where the angel was working at his desk. “Want a hug?”

Aziraphale blinked and looked up, very sharply. “Crowley,” he said, and paused for a long moment. “We can’t.”

“Not what I asked,” Crowley pointed out.

Aziraphale looked back at his desk. “You’re trying to tempt me,” he said to the books.

“Is it working?”

“No,” Aziraphale said firmly, and picked up a pen. “It is absolutely not.”

Crowley winced mentally and wandered — somewhat quickly — off into the bookshelves. That had stung. He knew it might, fool that he was. That’s what he got for having bold days.

~

Perhaps fifteen minutes passed before he heard footsteps behind him. He didn’t turn around.

The footsteps stopped, and everything was quiet for several seconds. Then a hand landed on his shoulder. 

Every one of Crowley’s muscles seemed to try to tense and relax at the same moment. “Aziraphale?”

“I may not have been entirely truthful, a minute ago,” Aziraphale said.

“Changed your mind, did you?” Crowley said, still staring in the opposite direction of the angel he knew was behind him.

“Don’t make me say it,” Aziraphale said, and he sounded a little shaky. 

Crowley stared resolutely ahead for another moment, then sighed and took two steps backward, until he hit Aziraphale. Aziraphale’s arm closed over Crowley’s chest, pressing them together. Crowley turned, catching Aziraphale’s torso with his own arms, and, after a brief hesitation, laying his head on Aziraphale’s shoulder.

Aziraphale sighed a little, and Crowley expended a single thought on congratulating himself for being right about them both needing this. Then he held on a little tighter and sank into the feeling.

“Someday I’ll make it up to you,” Aziraphale whispered eventually, so quietly that even Crowley could hardly hear it. 

Crowley could have argued that there was nothing to make up, because there  _ wasn’t. _ But he knew, somewhere in that unspoken understanding that they had built, that that wasn’t what Aziraphale was really saying. He was saying,  _ I’m sorry for pushing you away, _ and  _ I know you wouldn’t harm me, _ and  _ I wish I could bring myself to ask for these things. _ Crowley heard that, buried under the words that Aziraphale  _ could _ manage to say, and he listened.

Perhaps someday Aziraphale would say the things he didn’t. Perhaps someday Crowley would do the same. Today, though, they stood among the towering bookshelves, and they held each other.

Just for a moment.


End file.
